[[Review of Walsh's Sketches of Conspicuous
Living Characters of France]]

[page 203, column 2:]

"Heads of the People; or Portraits of the English." Drawn by Kenny
Meadows. With Original Essays by Distinguished Writers. Carey & Hart.

The design of this book is among the number of those
which are obviously good — and the book itself is, upon the whole,
an amusing one. It might have been better, no doubt. With designs by Cruikshanks,
and letter-press by the best of the English literati, how glorious
a work might have been concocted "upon this hint!" Not that some of the
names here found are not among the best — but we should have had
the Dii majorum gentium exclusively — one paper from each. These
papers, too, should have been written [page 204:] with
some uniformity of manner, or of plan, and have confined themselves to
racy and truthful delineation of that character which is peculiarly
British, while the engravings should have been careful embodiments of the
text. As it is, the publication has something of a hap-hazard, and, if
the truth must be told, of a catchpenny air, which makes very much against
it, notwithstanding the exceeding merit of several of the essays, and of
three or four of the designs. The preface seems to have been written by
some one who had a proper sense of what the volume
should be, but
affords no indication of what it really
is.

There are twenty-six "Heads" in all. Some of them
are pure caricatures without merit — "The Creditor," for example, and "The
Debtor," (injudiciously placed as frontispieces), The "Diner-Out," the
"Sentimental Singer," "The Man of Many Goes" and "The Printer's Devil."
Others are equally caricatures, but of so vivid and truth-preserving an
exaggeration, that we admire without scruple: — we allude to "The Lion
of the Party," "The Waiter," "The Linen-Draper's Assistant" and "The Stock-Broker."
Some are full of natural truth — for instance "The Young Lord," "he Dress-Maker,"
"The Young Squire," "The Basket Woman," "Captain Rook" and "Mr. Pigeon."
"The Last Go" is the best thing in the volume — combining the extreme of
the ludicrous with absolute fidelity. "The Fashionable Authoress," "The
Cockney" and "The Family Governess" are tame and unmeaning. The rest have
no particular merit or demerit. About the whole there is a great deal of
bad drawing, which we know not whether to attribute to the designer or
the engraver.

The same variety of value is observable in the text.
In general the articles are not very creditable; although one or two are
of surpassing excellence. The longest called "Tavern Heads" (illustrated
by seven or eight sketches) is a rambling, disjointed narrative in imitation
of Dickens, and written probably by the author of a clever production entitled
"Pickwick Abroad," never yet republished, we believe, in this country.
They paper called "Captain Rook and Mr. Pigeon," and superscribed with
the name of William Thackeray, is one of the finest specimens of easily-mingled
humor and wit we ave ever had the pleasure of perusing.

The legend of the Flying Dutchman has long since
been worn out, and its attempted resuscitation by this author has, as he
should have known, proved an entire failure. Indeed we have rarely read
a less creditable novel than this. The characters are strange; the incidents
unnatural; and the descriptions of the might deep surpassed by nine out
of ten of our ordinary sea-writers. The tyranny with formerly existed,
and indeed still exists in a measure, in the British navy is, however,
sketched with a bold pencil; but with this single redeeming trait, the
public, much less the critics, will scarcely be satisfied. The desertion
of Ramsay on the Island; his miraculous [column 2:]
meeting with the very one he wished to meet, Angela; the whole farcical
story, of the deception practised in the appearance of the Flying Dutchman's
frigate; the singular preservation of Capt. Livingston from drowning, when
cast overboard unseen at night, and the clap-trap of the trial scene, when
the aforesaid captain and the corporeal appear so unexpectedly, furnish
a series of improbabilities only to be endured by a novel-reader of sufficient
voracity to gorge, shark-like, any and everything, no matter what.

———

"Patchwork." By Capt. Basil Hall. 2 vols. Lea
& Blanchard.

Captain Hall is one of the most agreeable of writers.
We like him for the same reason that we like a good drawing-room conversationist
— there is such a pleasure in listening to his elegant nothings. Not that
the captain is unable to be profound. He has, on the contrary, some reputation
for science. But in his hands even the most trifling personal adventures
become interesting from the very piquancy with which they are told.

The present work is made up of a series of desultory
sketches of travels, in every quarter of the globe, and extending through
a period of nearly thirty years. You almost forget yourself as your read,
and fancy that you are listening to an oral narrative from Capt. Hall in
person. In the most charming manner possible you are transported from the
glaciers of the Alps to the waters of the Pacific, and then whisked back
again to old Europe, and hurried to Vesuvius, Malta, and Etna in pleasing
succession. The descriptions of these various places, mingled with scientific
observations, and narratives of personal adventures, form altogether one
of the pleasantest books for after-dinner perusal, especially on a sunny
April day, when, reposed at length upon a sofa, beside an open casement,
with the birds carrolling without, and the balmy spring breathing across
us, we forget, for a while, the dull business of life.

———

"Georgia Illustrated." W. & W. C. Richards, Penfield, Ga.

This is a praiseworthy work, and reflects high credit
on all concerned in it. The views are selected with taste, and give us
a high opinion of the scenery of Georgia. They are accompanied by a letter-press
description., from the pen of the editor, W. C. Richards. The engravings
are executed in excellent style by Messrs. Rawdon, Wright, Hatch and Smillie.
Such works cannot be too extensively patronised. They encourage the arts;
foster a love for the beautiful; and acquaint the public with some of the
loveliest gems of our native scenery. Was it not a disgrace to our country
that both "Hinton's Topography" and the still later "American Scenery,"
emanated wholly from England — the capital embarked, the sketches and engravers
employed, and even the place of publication being English?

[The notice of Hall's Patchwork is certain to be the work of Poe. The
attribution of the other three reviews given here is debatable. All were
considered to be the work of Poe by Heartman and Canny (1943) and by T.
O. Mabbott. Mabbott's notes at the University of Iowa list these reviews,
without explanation, as "accepted," except for the review of Hall's "Patchwork,"
which he marks as "sure." William D. Hull felt that they were all more
likely the work of a reviewer retained from the earlier incarnation of
Graham's,
whom Hull calls "the
Casket reviewer." In the first sentence of
the review of "Head of the People" the writer says "upon the whole." In
the third sentence of the review of "The Flying Dutchman," the writer says
"nine out of ten." Both of these phrase are quite typical of Poe and are
used by him in many places. The book by Hall is mentioned again in the
Graham's
review for September 1841 of the Countess Blessington's
The Idler in
France. More significantly, the first paragraph of the notice of Hall
is repeated in the 1850 edition of Marginalia, as item CLXXXV, misnumbered
CLXXXIV.]